Reasons Why You Should Trash Chain letters and Email Scams

If you answer this question and pass it on to your closest friends in the next ten minutes, your deepest secret will come true. Read on to experience it yourself!

Do you know the purpose of chain letters and those emails claiming to be from the FBI or some credible organization?

Click the correct answer:

a) To defraud you of your identity b) To play on emotions and take your money c) To send it to everyone on your mailing list to clog up the internet d) To pass on computer viruses e) All of above

If you picked ‘all of above’ you’re right!

Chain letters and hoax messages are another type of internet fraud. They persuade recipients to pass on the e-mail to all the email addresses they have, clogging up inboxes and slowing down the server.

If all the users with one mail server spend one minute reading the same chain letter and discarding it. This could slow down the mail server to a crawl if users don’t pay for the increase capacity for the server to handle messages.

Other than slowing down your server, chain letters play on your emotions by scaring you with bad luck or waking your greed with chances of winning money. And hoax messages also known as e-mail scams often threaten or frighten you to pass on your personal information or a sum of money to the sender.

Popular E-mail Scams

In December 2006, a scam stirring fear in recipients emerged across the country. The sender of the email threatened to kill recipients if they did not pay large amounts of money to the sender. The following month, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) received 115 complaints about this hoax. Luckily, no reports of money loss were filed.

Other common types of e-mail scams include messages purportedly from the FBI, spam involving the U.S. military, and the greeting card scams.

Messages claiming to be from the FBI are on the rise. These messages often notify the recipient that their IP address logged onto 30 or so illegal sites. And request recipients to answer questions by providing their personal information, such as, social insurance number, credit card information, and bank accounts.

The FBI website informs users to discard all messages claiming to be from the FBI. They also encourage users to report such hoax messages to the IC3 or visit www.ic3.gov. Also, remember the FBI does not send out emails to the average citizen, so safeguard yourself from e-mails scams that attempt to scam your money, or make you a victim of credit fraud and/or identity theft .

Similarly, spam involving the U.S. military request users for personal information or funds to support the military should also be discarded and reported to the IC3 along with greeting card scams, which often carry malicious viruses.